GAMESCOM – Broken Sword 5 on the Switch

I’ve always loved the Broken Sword series, and most of Charles Cecil’s games in fact, so when I got an email asking if I wanted to meet the man and get a first look at Broken Sword 5 on the Switch, I couldn’t say no.

Having already completed the game, I knew what to expect from the title but was keen to see how Revolution Software were going to adapt it to the handheld console. Having played Broken Sword on the Playstation, and also on a mobile device, I didn’t really know what to expect, and how feasible it would be to play it on the Switch, but it is adapted extremely well. There’s still the issue of it not being exactly brilliant if you use the joycons, but that’s purely because the cursor crawls across the screen to get to where you want it to go. The magic really happens when you cast off the joycons and instead use the Switch as a tablet and play the game like that. It works flawlessly and is extremely easy to get to grips with. The most impressive thing is that the game works seamlessly between the joycons and the touch screen. You can very easily start by playing with the joycons and then, once you realise that’s a terrible way to play the game, move on to the touch screen and it moves across exactly how you would want it to. There’s no delay, no odd little frame rate drop while it tries to figure out what you’ve done, it just works. Revolution have always been good at creating games that work well, and this is definitely a top example of how technologically brilliant the team are. While the idea of switching between touch screen and joycons is certainly an easy one, I can definitely say it’s one of those things that is easier said than done.

Perhaps disappointingly for fans of the game, there is no new story or easter eggs hidden within the title, it is a straight port from the PC. Like for like, so if you wanted to see an extra scene to pad out the story or add an extra angle into the game, then unfortunately we won’t be seeing it. However, being able to play such a wonderful story on the go is one of the most appealing things I can think of, so it’s definitely worth picking up, in my opinion.